The Unknown Xbox

How Microsoft's Game Console Fell Against the Rising Sun

No game system has had a stranger, nor shorter history in the past ten years than Microsoft's Xbox. Without it, Microsoft wouldn't be in the strong position they in the game industry they are today, but the genesis of the original Xbox remains an interesting freshman effort. The strangest branch on the Xbox timeline is its performance in Japan, where it was repeatedly thrust on a gaming public that could only be described as terminally apathetic. Granted, the Xbox had its fair share of flaws that weren't unique to the East, but the ones that were still held some degree of fascination, because they were almost exclusively cultural. This retrospective focuses on the Xbox's struggles in Japan, from its first public debut to its problems with marketing to its quiet transition to the Xbox 360 -- but a few good things that came of it all, too.